Nepal approves preliminary design of Timure dry port

Kathmandu, January 16

The government has approved the preliminary design for Timure (Rasuwa) dry port prepared by Architectural Reconnaissance and Design Institute of Tibet, an entrusted party of the Chinese government, during the recently held meeting in China.

The dry port is being constructed with technical and financial support from the government of China.

In accordance with the letter of exchange in 2012, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the Ministry of Commerce (MoC) and government of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China for the feasibility study of the project in October, 2014.

After the feasibility study was completed, a design contract was signed between Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board under MoC and the Architectural Reconnaissance and Design Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region on December 4, 2015.

The dry port will be built on 8.5 hectares of land. The government has arranged five hectares of land from the Langtang National Park and the additional 3.5 hectares of private land was acquired.

The dry port will consist of parking area for 315 freight vehicles, 5,000 square metres of administrative building, a warehouse of 750 square metres covered area, two appraisal sheds of 2,080 square metres, boundary wall, water tank and other necessary infrastructure, as per the agreed design.

During the meeting, before signing the minutes for approval of the preliminary design work, the Chinese side informed that after approval of the preliminary design, it will take about three months for the Chinese side to complete the detailed design work. After that, it may take an additional one month to start the construction works of the project, according to NITDB officials.

“The Nepali side also raised some issues regarding additional infrastructure to be included in the preliminary design. The Chinese side agreed and has assured construction of such additional infrastructure in the next phase of project implementation period.”

China is the second largest trading partner of Nepal and the northern neighbour has extended zero tariff entry facility for over 8,000 Nepali products from 2009. However, Nepal hasn’t been able to bring its trade deficit down, as the facility is largely unutilised.

Consequently, the trade deficit with China has risen from $401 million in 2009-10 to $1,228 million in 2015-16, according to the Trade and Export Promotion Centre.

The minutes were signed by the head of the delegation of the Nepali side Laxman Bahadur Basnet, executive director, Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board, and Meng Naiqing, chief engineer, the Architectural Reconnaissance and Design Institute

of TAR.

Under Secretary Tarka Raj Bhatta from MoC and Zhouma Ciren from Department of Commerce, TAR, were also present during the signing ceremony, which took place in Chengdu of China.

Both sides have agreed to continue mutual cooperation in the construction stage, and joint efforts for successful completion of the project, as per officials.